Tuesday, December 10, 2013

I am really proud of these meringue trees because I, humbly, admit that I did NOT get them right the first time. In fact, they were put directly in the trash, and it took me a week to build up the courage to try again, after a little bit of internet research on why my first batch were "leaking." What I discovered was that I may have added the sugar too quickly to the eggs, so this round I paced myself. And voila!

These meringue Christmas trees were originally inspired by Raspberri Cupcake's recent Instagram post. I didn't use her recipe, though, opting for a more traditional meringue that uses cream of tartar as a stabilizer. Once the meringue is prepared, it's super simple to pipe these trees on some silpat or parchment paper, using a star tip, and bake them up!

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F
2. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpat
3. Beat the egg whites in an electric mixer with the whisk attachment until foamy, on low-medium speed
4. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating the egg whites at medium-high speed until soft peaks form
5. Start to slowly add the sugar in, a small part at a time, and beat the eggs and sugar until very stiff peaks form and all of the sugar is dissolved (test by taking a bit of the mixture between your fingers and making sure it doesn't feel gritty)
6. Beat in the vanilla
7. Add the green food coloring gel to get the desired color
8. Prepare a piping bag with a star tip, and fill with the meringue
9. Pipe spiral trees on the cookie sheets and top with a sprinkle star
10. Place in the oven for 45 minutes - DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR!!
11. Rotate the baking sheets and bake for another 45-60 minutes.
12. Turn the oven off and test to see if the meringues pull easily off of the baking sheet, keeping them in the oven with the door slightly open.
13. Allow the meringues to dry in the oven for a few hours

Note: If you don't have fine sugar or castor sugar, you can make it yourself by putting granulated sugar in a food processor and processing it for 60 seconds. I like buying it for the convenience. You can order it from Amazon, if you want super convenience. This kind of sugar is great because it dissolves a lot quicker. With meringue, I learned, that if the sugar is not fully dissolved into the egg whites, then it will bubble out of the meringue while cooking and create this mess that ruins the look of the trees.